Keeping Christians of all denomination in Malaysia informed of events happening in the country affecting the Christian faith and other political issues. Encouraging Christians to get more involved in politics so His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Friday, 19 October 2012

The Unified Examination Certificate - an interminable election issue

Kua Kia Soong

11:56AM Oct 19, 2012

COMMENT
In every general election since 1975 when the Malaysian Independent
Chinese Secondary Schools' (MICSS) Unified Examination Certificate (UEC)
was first run, the UEC has been an election issue. The 13th general
election is no exception.

I should know about the UEC. When I
first came back to Malaysia from my studies in the UK in 1983, I was
contracted by the former chairperson of the United Chinese School
Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), Lim Fong Seng to enable
the UEC to be recognised all over the world.

This
I did with alacrity and within two years, notable universities in the
US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore had recognized the
UEC after the standard accreditation procedures.

In most cases,
their representatives visited our office and the Independent schools of
which there were 60 in West and East Malaysia.
Occasionally, I went to visit the key educational institutions abroad.

Today,
more than 400 foreign tertiary institutions around the world already
recognise the UEC and our MICSS students are found in countries all over
the globe, including France, Germany and Russia.

Ever since the
Eighties, the National University of Singapore has been poaching
hundreds of top UEC students not only for their academic excellence but
also for their trilingual capabilities in an effort to balance their
other Anglophile Singaporeans.

Academic accreditation, not racial politics

So why has the BN government doggedly refused to recognise the UEC all these years? In
1975, when the MICSS decided to hold its first Unified Examination, the
Chinese education leaders were summoned to Parliament by then-education
minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and were told in no uncertain terms to
cancel the examination "or else...!"

They carried on regardless
of the consequences and the UEC has been held every year since then
without ever springing a leak in any examination papers!

Clearly,
the reason for Umno's position is their hegemonic position of imposing a
Malay-centric education system with Bahasa Malaysia as the main medium
of instruction.

It should be pointed out at the outset that BM
and English are compulsory language papers in the UEC and many MICSS
schools also run the SPM at the fifth secondary year.

Consequently,
through these years the UEC has become a political issue since Umno
refuses to recognize the MICSS system which is wholly supported by the
community and not by the government.

The community is thus
paying double taxation when, apart from paying income tax, they also
financially support this mother tongue education system.

Should
the recognition of UEC remain a political issue when the BN government
recognises all foreign certificates based on their accreditation by the
Malaysian Qualifications Authority (MQA)?

How else do foreign students gain admission into our institutions of higher learning?

The
fact that the MQA has yet to do a proper accreditation of the UEC when
other foreign universities have done so since the Eighties is not saying
very much for '1 Malaysia' is it?

Thus an issue such as the
recognition of the UEC should from the very start have been easily
handled by the MQA instead of being treated as political football by
politicians all these years.

As we have seen in the recent
harassment of Suaram through the government's directive to six
government agencies, there should be a standard operating procedure for
government agencies such as the MQA to carry out their job - in this
case, the accreditation of the UEC - without political interference.

The result of the accreditation process should then be made known and the UEC recognized or rejected accordingly. QED!

New Kuantan MICSS and UECAs
a political gesture to win the Chinese vote, the BN government has
recently approved a new secondary school in Kuantan to be governed by
the Chinese community there although the letter of approval has
stipulated that the new school would run the SPM.

Prime Minister Najib Razak(left) has since said that these Kuantan students can sit for the UEC (The Sun Oct 18,2012).

The
sincerity of the government on this issue is in serious doubt when we
bear in mind that to date hundreds of operators have already been given
permits to open English-language international schools in Malaysia.

Why
the glaring double standards? Why do private English-language schools
have a special immunity that non-profit-making community-run MICSS
cannot enjoy?

Dong Zong, under the leadership of Triple Doctor
Yap Sin Tian (he has three PhDs!) has tried to maintain a "purist"
position by insisting that this new Kuantan school is not strictly an
MICSS just because of the stipulations of the approval letter.

They have said that therefore, Dong Zong would not allow its students to sit for the UEC.

As
the person contracted by Dong Jiao Zong to help set up the
tertiary-level New Era College for the MICSS in 1995, I see these as
hypocritical and double standards.

The stipulations for the new
Kuantan secondary school are no different from the approval given to New
Era College in 1997 - they merely reflect the BN government's
(problematic) educational policy.

The Dong Jiao Zong leadership
did not reject the offer to New Era College then but proceeded to start
the college in 1998 according to the curriculum we had planned.

It
is therefore shocking that even after the Prime Minister Najib Razak
has said that these Kuantan students can sit for the UEC and the new
stakeholders in the Kuantan school have committed to be an MICSS, the
Dong Zong leaders still insist that they will not allow the Kuantan
school students to sit for the UEC.

Such a legalistic position is reactionary and would make the Father of the UEC, the late Lim Fong Seng, turn in his grave.

The
reasons behind Dong Zong's "purist" position is highly dubious when we
consider that some MICSS such as the Kuala Lumpur Chong Hwa, Kuen Cheng
and others have been running the SPM concurrently with the UEC all these
years.

Since when have the Dong Zong leaders been so concerned to strictly follow the government's definition of a MICSS?

Making UEC widely available From
a visionary point of view, Dong Jiao Zong should be lobbying for the
UEC to be as widely available as other examination certificates at least
in Malaysia and Southeast Asia instead of restricting its currency as
in the case of the new Kuantan School.

To conclude, the
reputation of the UEC will be intact as long as the examination board is
professionally run, the quality of the MICSS is maintained and the
certificate is associated with academicians and leaders of integrity.

Chinese
educationists should never fail to bear in mind that, of all the values
instilled in students by education, perhaps none is as essential as
academic integrity.

Academic dishonesty - such as the pursuit of
bogus PhDs - is a serious violation of the trust upon which an academic
community depends.
KUA KIA SOONG is a former principal of community-run New Era College.

About Me

1Christians Malaysia is a Christian NGO with the aim of uniting Malaysian Christians of all denomination into 1 Body of Christ. Christians must be united so that we can speak in 1 strong voice to protect our rights as stated in our federal constitution. We must work and pray together so that His Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.